Nurses have always pursued and will continue to pursue professional development. Professional development in nursing is the establishment of higher levels with respect to both knowledge and skills required to perform duties or support interventions in clinical practice, management, education, research, regulation or policy-making. This is usually established by the improved credit and reward given to the individual for providing services as specified by the field.
This 21st century is the age of technology, modern science and of course of science fiction. Technology has brought progress in almost all the spheres of our lives. But in this era of advancement, the number of unscrupulous persons is also increasing. The World Health Organization has shown that 1 in 10 medications in low-and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified and it is alarming undoubtedly. The international trade in fake medicines, which rakes in billions of dollars a year, is estimated to harm thousands of people every year.
Fake drugs are known as counterfeits which have been labelled regarding their identity or origin to fool consumers deliberately. These drugs contain incorrect active agents. Even the dosage is either too high or too low. They have manipulated expiry dates and most importantly they are wrapped in forged packaging, blisters and/or contain falsified patient information.
Infections that were simple to cure, gonorrhoea for example, are back with a vengeance. Conditions like tuberculosis and HIV are getting harder to treat. In the future, routine surgery or cancer treatment could become risky. There is a real danger of returning to a time where any one of us, anywhere in the world, could pick up such an infection and find that medicine is powerless to save us.
In this respect nurses play a crucial role as a caregiver, to bring appropriate and unadulterated treatment for the common man. As a result, nurses in various parts of the world have taken the mission to make people aware of such dishonest activities. The fight against crimes which harm human health and integrity in general, and particularly the combat against organized crime, requires a high level of transnational and international cooperation. Our prestigious journal hereby establishes such a platform for cooperation, to make people conscious and alert to live a hassle-free life.
Datuk Prof. Dr. Hjh. Bibi Florina Abdullah, RN